Advice on writing a game story

That's actually easier to teach than good story writing.

 

Well, yeah.

 

Good stuff on here.
One thing I wish more people would learn is how to ask the proper questions. That can make or break a game story. I go to games and see many younger reporters ask questions like they are one of those overpaid useless TV sideline reporters.

Other reporters I know are very inflexible. They write a gamer that leads and explains a key point of the game one way, but the coach/player doesn't give them a quote supporting how they've written it in their head, and they try to force it to work.

 

I'm less surprised that some sports reporters might not know how to keep a baseball scorebook than I am that any would admit it.

I had to learn to keep a scorebook in the very early part of my career, but now, I can't imagine writing everything out. I'll write game notes as warranted in support, but I wouldn't go without the scorebook.

 

I don't keep an official scorebook when I do baseball (like a scorecard for example), but I don't write out longhand. I have a shorthand for it.

 

That works fine, too. I do football stats differently than some people, but I've been using my system for almost 30 years and know it like the back of my hand.

Unless you are charged with being the official scorer in baseball/softball, all you need is a means to document what happened.

I just found that because there were so many games, it was helpful to have a book that I could carry. That way, I always had it with me and I could quickly flip back and see if Smith had a 7 or 8-game hitting streak and how much strikeouts Davis had in his last start, etc.

 

Last thing I need is some novice know-it-all writing, "Despite some questionable play-calling by the East Bumfuck coaches...."

 

What if there some questionable play calls? Going for it early on fourth-and-15, running on third-and-19, not adapting to an opponent's style of play, etc.?

 

You can editorialize without editorializing. If you want to say going for it on fourth-and-15 was questionable, then ask the question after the game and put the answer in.

South Bumfuck went ahead late in the first quarter after a three-play, 22-yard drive set up when North Bumfuck went for it on fourth-and-15 from its own 18.
"We felt like we needed to set the tone," North Bumfuck coach John Treesap said of the early gamble. "Looking back now, I realize that that's the kind of decision that's going to have me on the breadline at the end of the season."

 

Obviously you're going to do the reporting to figure out why a coach did something that seems strange (going for it on fourth-and-15 on his 18). But if the facts back you up, I don't see why you can't say, "Because of some poor playcalling, Team X lost 42-36 on Friday. The bad call came late in the second quarter..." As long as you have the reporting to back up your editorializing, you should be able to go with it.

 

You'd only want to write it that way if you're on your way out the door to another job, or intent on burning your bridges with that coach and his school.

You never, ever want to show up a coach that blatantly in a gamer. Tell the readers what happened, which would include asking the coach why he did what he did at a certain point in a game. But save the editorializing and second-guessing for a column.

 

How are you burning bridges if the coach admits his calls are "going to send him to the breadline?"